In terms of safety, a rider is most vulnerable when mounting and dismounting a horse. Large mounting blocks are available that provide a rider with enough elevation to mount a horse; however, these blocks are heavy, not collapsible, and not portable. Frequently, a rider may find himself in a location with no obvious structure on which to elevate himself, such as a mounting block, a fence, an overturned bucket, or a natural object, such as a large rock, a tree stump, or a dirt bank, in order to mount or re-mount the horse. Some type of assistance is frequently necessary in order to elevate the rider so he can be mounted into the saddle. Often, a rider is not in the company of another person who can help him mount the horse.
Stirrups, one attached to each side of a saddle, provide a foothold for a rider and can aid him in mounting a horse. However, often stirrups must be shortened for the saddle, as in the case of a shorter rider, so that, when seated atop the horse in the saddle, the rider's feet are able to reach the stirrups. As a result, such stirrups are even higher from the ground, making it more difficult for a short rider, a child, a physically-limited rider, or an older rider to reach the stirrups from the ground. Even if a stirrup can be lowered enough so that a rider can reach the stirrup with one foot while standing on the ground, it would take superior physical ability for a rider to hoist his weight up and over the back of the horse from that even lower stirrup position.
Presently, devices for mounting horses are of two types: (1) devices for attachment to one of the stirrups on a horse's saddle; and (2) devices for attachment to the saddle itself. Numerous patents have issued for the first type of devices, which essentially lengthen the stirrup in some manner in order to extend it lower to the ground for the rider. Such patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,957; U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,633; U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,872; U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,088; U.S. Pat. No. 7,263,817; U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,390; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,349. Often such an “extended” stirrup is still not long enough to allow a rider to reach it from the ground, and, even if it is accessible, the rider will be suspended alongside the horse in an unsafe manner until he or she can climb into the saddle stirrup and swing his or her other leg over the horse.
Examples of the second type of device are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,797 (which shows a mounting stirrup on a strap with a loop that can be attached to the horn of the saddle); U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,497 (which shows a rope ladder that is attached to the saddle); and U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,973 (which shows a retractable stirrup that is attached to the saddle). As with the first type of device, when mounting a horse, a rider will spend time hanging alongside the horse in an unsafe position, with the weight of the rider hanging on one of its sides; the horse may experience physical stress and unbalance. If the horse moves unexpectedly, the rider can be in a precarious situation.
Finally, after a rider mounts the horse, some of the presently available inventions are designed to be left hanging alongside the animal's body, in an unwieldy, unsafe manner.
There continues to be a need for a collapsible, portable device that allows a rider to safely mount and re-mount a horse, even in an isolated location.